The Phoenix Suns have one of the most passionate and animated owners in the NBA. Reportedly, he hasn’t been the most favorable person to former players like Channing Frye and Isaiah Thomas and he’s even bumped heads with Matt Barnes and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Sarver is very invested in a team he purchased in 2004 for a then-record $401 million. The 2004-05 campaign saw the start of something great for the Suns and their fans.
It was the Steve Nash era and the two-time MVP, under Sarver’s ownership, led the Suns to 62 wins in 04-05, tieing a franchise best number for games won in a season.
Five of the next seven seasons would see much of the same success for Phoenix. While Nash was definitely on his decline, Amar’e Stoudemire would depart for the New York Knicks and Shawn Marion was losing his luster of being ‘The Matrix’, the team was still a staple in the playoff picture.
Once the Phoenix Suns dealt Nash following the 2011-12 season in an attempt to begin their rebuild, no one thought it would be an easy road for Phoenix. The dynamic trio they had that ran wild on the NBA just about 10 years earlier was gone and it was time to rebuild.
Well, since then, there hasn’t been a ton of success to speak of. The Suns plan to this point has been strange. Their hand was forced by Goran Dragic to trade him, despite the fact he was once viewed as the guy to lead Phoenix back to major success, they also quickly moved on from Isaiah Thomas just a few months after acquiring the diminutive sixth man and recently they struck out hard in their attempt to bring LaMarcus Aldridge to Phoenix.
They traded one half of their Morris twins by sending Marcus Morris to the Detroit Pistons to clear cap space for Aldridge. They also signed former defensive player of the year Tyson Chandler to a crazy contract based on the hopes they would be bringing in Aldridge to pair up with the rim-protecting center.
Well, with under a month to go before training camp starts, the Suns are in the middle of a controversy with Markieff Morris, who wants to go after his brother was traded, and they have a roster that is a little confusing to many people considering the young path they were going towards during their post-Nash rebuild. One person who seems concerned with the roster as it is and their plan going forward is the Suns owner, Robert Sarver.
Following from Ken Berger of CBS Sports.
Coach Jeff Hornacek is hopeful for a reconciliation, but either way Suns owner Robert Sarver is said to be getting “antsy” with the team’s rebuilding plan, according to a person well versed in Suns matters.
Their rebuild since they lost the trio of Nash, Stoudemire and Marion has shown minimal success. They’ve constantly just missed the playoffs by a few games and they are always on the outside looking in.
They have some young talent in Brandon Knight, Archie Goodwin, T.J. Warren, Alex Len and newly drafted Devin Booker but those guys aren’t franchise-changing players. Not to mention they only got older in the offseason bringing in Chandler, Mirza Teletovic, Ronnie Price and Jon Leuer.
The plan is not working out to this point and if the owner is getting ‘antsy’ it could mean some big changes are set to be made. Whether that’s with roster, coaching staff or even the front office remains to be seen but they do have a disgruntled potential star forward they could move to begin the process of getting back to successful days.
